NoaIzumiAnime Review: Origin, Spirits of the Past
March 21st 2009 21:52
Ever since a sudden cataclysm wiped out civilization hundreds of years ago, plants have ruled the Earth. The remaining humans are divided into those that live with the now-intelligent trees, and those that would destroy them. After Agito of Neutral City finds Toola, a girl from the past, the balance of power is threatened, and when Toola is taken by the industrialized nation of Ragna, he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back, even if it means giving up his own humanity!
Origin joins Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Blue Gender in the small but growing sub-genre of post-apocolyptic, environmentally themed anime. The plot is fairly standard, but still pretty good, although I wish a few more elements were explained along the way. Why does the Forest imitate humanity in form? And who are these Druid guys?
The characters, aside from Toola, are fairly standard too. They’re decent and fun to watch, yet a little two-dimensional. Toola is the one we really identify with as she tries to figure out what her place is in this strange future. With the Forest-dominated world as foreign to us as it is to her, we can’t fault her decision to join the Ragnans and try to bring the world back to what it was. But, then the head of the Ragnans, who is from the past himself, shows his duplicity and fanaticism right away, never allowing us to come to the decision on our own of who’s right or wrong. To its credit, Origin never portrays the Ragnans is blanketly evil, but the choice is still made for us: Environmentalism is correct, industrialism is bad. This is the movie that people who haven’t seen Princess Mononoke accuse Princess Mononoke of being.
One place where Origin excels is the animation. The Forest beasts (kind of like giant dragons made up of fast-moving vines) are particularly impressive, but they’re only seen in a couple of places before they’re superceded in opposing Ragna by a Forest-modified Agito. He plays the action role well, and it’s only fitting for the main character to be the big bad-ass, but the plant dragons were still cooler. And the climactic battle at the end was the perfect opportunity to bring them out again, but this opportunity was missed.
On more minor notes, while I appreciate the back-story shown in the opening credits and later more fully explained, it’s just too fantastic to really accept, and winds up being a little distracting. Also, ever since Frodo and Sam were rescued at the last second from an exploding Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings, the erupting volcano climax just doesn’t have the same push that it used to.
Geeking out: Not an intentional homage, but the trouble the transforming Agito has in controlling his powers is very similar to Tetsuo’s predicament in the movie Akira.
Extras: The Special Edition has a Making Of documentary and original trailers.
Great moments: While it requires serious suspension of disbelief, the opening scene showing how the Forest broke free and came to take over Earth is still one of the most beautiful of the movie. And the music played over it sets the mood perfectly
Summary: A not-bad movie with an environmental theme, average characters and plot, above-average animation. Frankly, Nausicaa and Princess Mononoke did it better. Grade: B
Age rating: 12 and up. No real fan service; fights, but no one is killed or bloodied; scenes of Agito transforming into a plant might be scary to younger viewers.
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